Why play the Citadel at all?

The band’s unfortunate experience at The Citadel prompts this question: With so few non-Ivy dates available, why does football schedule the likes of San Diego, Hampton, and, now, The Citadel, in the first place? In addition to Colgate, Lafayette, and Lehigh, regular non-league foes, there are a number of other, much closer schools of compatible athletic and academic stature (Bucknell, Fordham, Holy Cross, Towson, and Villanova, to name a few).

It makes more sense to play distant teams in basketball, where, in a longer schedule, two or three games occur on the same trip and, cost-wise, involve only a fraction of the personnel.